by Steve Hale
With the removal of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, Vespasian hurried to Rome to put on the purple. He had left his son, Titus, in charge of the destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction was incredible, devastating, and bloody.
Vespasian ruled from A.D. 69-79. His rise to power was prophesied by Daniel as 'the little hom" of Daniel 7. Beyond his military conquests, Vespasian had many contemptible traits of immorality. After his wife died, he live in common law with a freed woman. When she died, he had a number of concubines.
In A.D. 72, Vespasian began construction of the Flavian Amphitheater, which today we call the Colosseum. It was an enormous structure, seating 60,000 to 80,000 people! It was 620 feet long and 513 feet wide, and named for Vespasian's Flavian family. Vespasian died some seven years later, nearly 70 years old.
Titus took the throne at his fathees death, and finished the Amphitheater his father had started. Thousands of Jewish slaves participated in its completion. The formal dedication took place in A.D. 80, and Titus decreed that a celebration of its completion should last 100 days.
During the dedication, 5000 animals were killed. Lions fought elephants, bears fought bulls, and of course gladiators were pitted against one another. Slaves either fought gladiators, or were fed to wild beasts.
The people hungered for blood, and perhaps Titus was calloused after those horrible days of Jerusalem's destruction.
Titus died at the age of 42, and ruled for only 2. years and 2 months. Jews said he died for having desecrated the Temple and the Holy of Holies.
The moon was bright and high when Titus and his 80,000 men appeared before Jerusalem. Jerusalem was filled with devout people who had come to celebrate the Passover. For most of them, this would be their last.
A fierce civil war was going on behind the walls. When Titus demanded the surrender of the city, the Jews laughed and continued fighting. After all, there were only 80,000 soldiers. The city at that time had about 600,000. Teeming with visitors, the city probably had 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants at the time of the siege.
In the end, the city was wreaking with the smell of dead bodies. Cannibalism of the most blatant kind was practiced. Josephus says that 115,800 corpses were removed from the city, and 97,000 prisoners were taken. The total dead are estimated between 600,000 to over 1,000,000. They had rejected Jesus. God had now rejected them.